Mutant

Three

Two police officers stood there expectantly while tapping their feet on the ground. The first one was a male officer with a buff body and the second was a female officer with loose sandy hair. They were both wearing silver badges that were imprinted "RTPD."
And they both looked pretty serious.

"Officer Chodger and Officer Leanne of the Remirda Town Police Department, are you Mrs. Littleton, wife of Mayor John Littleton?" Said the first police, Officer Chodger.

"Ex," said Mabel. "How may I help you guys?"

Officer Chodger and Officer Leanne looked at each other sincerely, and then forced their heads back to Mabel.

Officer Chodger cleared his throat and said "I'm sorry to tell you Miss, but.. Mayor John is dead."

The words struck at Mabel like a racket. She quickly shook her head and said "No, I don't understand. Can you repeat it again?"

Officer Chodger stood upfront with his chest held up boldly. "Your husband is dead."

Mabel found herself stuttering more quickly than it started. "I don't understand, how?"

Officer Leanne took charge this time.
"Your ex husband's body was found lying on the office desk from town hall. We can't really tell the cause for his death, other than the green markings we traced on his body."

Mabel stood there for a second, but then was interrupted by the shuffling steps that came from Arch and Lizzie.
Lizzie didn't like how the police officers were at their door. "What's going on Mom?"
Arch was standing right beside her, also wondering the same thing.

Mabel looked down at her kids dishearteningly, and then looked back at the cops.
The two officers nodded their head understandingly.
"We'll leave you time to grieve," said Officer Chodger. "And we're really sorry for your loss."

The two officers left and entered their police vehicle accordingly. And then it drove off, toot toot tooting away into the farther roads that curved and twirled.

Lizzie gazed at his mom with confusion.
"Loss? What loss?"

Mabel looked at Lizzie and Arch with streaming eyes and slowly opened her mouth.
******************

The funeral was pretty massive. Nearly every single person from Remirda Town was gathered around the epitaph filled graveyard. The moon was hanging down upon them as every footstep approached the graveyard.
Everybody was speechless and grounded by the thought of what could've been. Or what could've changed to release the gloomy effect. The Littleton family were more affected by this situation than anybody else.

Arch stood between Lizzie and Autumn in the horizontal line that seemed never ending. Arch never really thought of his dad that much. When he was four, John Littleton had departed from his mother, Mabel. It turned out his dad had been cheating her for another woman. When Mabel found this out, they quickly separated. This left Mabel as a single mom, and John as the cheating Mayor of the town. Arch hated to think of his dad as the mayor. It only reminded him of the whole conflict. But still, he was dead now, and he just couldn't stand the thought.

The eulogist of the funeral had been the dad of Mayor John, Arch's grandfather, Grandfather Littleton.
He was currently standing beside the cross shaped epitaph and had his arms crossed together like a V.

"John wasn't always the greatest when he was a kid, or even now. But you know what? He improved. As he grew up, he continued to learn and educate himself until he became the best. And now, he's the mayor of our town. The best mayor we've ever had. He showed us so many things. Patience, perseverance, hard work, redemption, and most importantly, love. And all I can say is thank you."

Everybody clapped and weeped as Grandfather Littleton headed back to his spot.
Then the pastor of the town, Pastor Gerald calmly walked up to the epitaph. He was carrying a bouquet of out bursting colorful flowers in his hands.

"If anyone has anything else to say, now would be the time,"

No one volunteered. The crowd looked to heart-struck to even speak.

Pastor Gerald put his bouquet near the epitaph and then sadly walked back.
More and more people came in and about just to hand in flowers to the epitaph.

Once the ceremonial funeral was over, people began to slowly fade away as they headed back to their daily lives or just drove back home.
The only person that was left standing was Arch. He was still observing the epitaph as if he expected it to do the unimaginative wonder of bringing his dad's life back. But nope, a stone rock is what remained.

"Are you coming Arch?" Mabel called, already at the drivers seat.

"Coming!" Arch cried.
He took one last look at the epitaph that had his father's name scripted on it.

"Goodbye father." Arch whispered.